If I'm Gone

Dear Vienna,

This story is my last gift to you, but it’s not wrapped in a pretty bow. I’m telling you upfront, so you won’t be surprised: There won’t be a happily ever after. At the end of the novel, you can choose what to do. This manuscript is the best chance I have to share what happened leading up to May 23. I’m sorry to leave you with mere words on paper. It feels intimate—I’ve chosen each phrase with care—yet impersonal. I wish I could be by your side as you read. But I’m afraid, Vienna, this was the only way.

Because if you’re reading this, I’m gone.

When Stevie vanishes on a random Thursday, she leaves behind a fiction manuscript that eerily mirrors the author’s own life: a former young adult novelist grieving her husband’s sudden death, her daughter’s faltering marriage, and an anonymous stalker who threatens her sense of safety.

Determined to discover what happened to Stevie, her daughter delves into the unpublished novel and Stevie’s private life. But reality and fiction collide when the manuscript exposes suspicious circumstances, and every page brings her closer to the most dangerous secret of all.